January 8th: Morning Ceremony…Welcome to BCNC…Campus Tour…Nakornping Hospital Orientation…NURS 495 Meeting

---

Today I woke up at 0645 and felt tired but I was so happy I was able to sleep through the night! I put on my clinical uniform for the first time in a while and was ready for the day at the hospital. We went down and ate breakfast which was some rice with chicken and some delicious glazed donuts! It was cool to have some breakfast food that was similar to what we would have at home. After eating we met our Thai buddies and walked down to have the morning ceremony with the students. As I was talking to my Thai buddies they were telling me how they were up until 3am doing homework for the first day of classes which was today for them. They told me they have microbiology, anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, and nutrition classes. I felt so bad that they were both up so late and they told me they woke up at 5am to eat breakfast. The poor things did not get any sleep after being so exhausted from the activities of the previous day. ☹ They seem like they work very hard and have such long hours of studying which I can relate to from nursing school at Messiah, but they definitely have longer hours of class and do not get enough sleep. They need some education on self-care. They told me they go to class from 10am-8pm. It makes nursing school at Messiah seem a lot more manageable. The morning ceremony was cool as the students all lined up and recited different messages of respect to their country and to the mother of nursing. It was cool to hear them all saying these things in unison and my buddy went up and gave a message too which was so cute! She told me afterwards how nervous she was to do it and I tried to reassure her that her English was very good. After the morning ceremony we went into one of the conference rooms in the administrative building and got officially welcomed to BCNC. The professors were all very kind and their English was very good. I appreciated their hospitality in welcoming us and thanking us for coming to their school. After that, two of the buddies performed a traditional Thai dance which was so cool to see and their outfits were beautiful. Then our Thai buddies introduced us to our Thai names and mine means “Enduringness with any things well” and “Smile.” ? They gifted us with a photo frame that has a picture of our flower and our name written on the bottom of the frame. So sweet and such a meaningful gift! I gave them some candy and a Philadelphia magnet in exchange. After the welcome we were given a tour of the campus and I was so surprised by the simulation rooms and the technology they had. They also had a lot of body models which were really cool! It surprised me that they had such nice equipment and I was able to better understand why this is one of the top nursing schools in this country. After the tour we had lunch and went to our hospital orientation. We got to see all of our hospitals units that we are going to be on and they were very different looking than American hospitals. All the beds were in one big room and there was no such thing as patient privacy. Because the culture is so focused on community, this arrangement is not as much of an issue in this culture and it makes it so much easier for the nurses to care for so many patients at once. There seemed to be a lot of sanitary issues such as an open top curtain to isolate patients with diseases such as MRSA and VRE. There seems to be improvements being made in response to infection issues but there is still a lot to learn. I am excited to see what is to come this week in the hospital with all I am going to see and learn on the female medical unit. After visiting the hospital, we went back to the college and had some free time so we decided to walk to the nearby trail where we walked about 5 miles and it was very tiring, but I realized how fit and active the Thai culture is. Dinner was delicious again. It was chicken stir fry and rice and some soup. After dinner we had our first meeting as a group and it was helpful to hear everyone’s thoughts and be able to express frustrations and experiences. After the meeting, Victoria and I had a long conversation about feeling convicted about sharing our faith with our buddies and what it looks like to show Christ’s love to them when they are so selfless and servant hearted. It brought me to tears thinking about Thailand as a country that is caught up in a religion that I believe is not the truth. To see people so dedicated to their religion is commendable, but to know that they are worshipping a false god and are dedicated to something that is not going to save them is very difficult to witness. I may be the only Christian they meet who shares their faith with them and I want to be a light for God’s kingdom. I know God knows no limits and Buddha is no competition for Jesus so I hope to continue to pray and ask God for opportunities to be His faithful child and servant.

---